The problems with the first group are often discussed but the second often benefit by ignoring how many readers don’t understand even the simple measures used by journalists. For many, if not most viewers, nothing seemed strange about Keeley’s in-court reporting despite being, um, well, out of the courtroom.

Of course, there is a difference that in my opinion can make aggregation – like I do on this site – OK. New media old heads like Jeff Jarvis talk about the link economy, something I buy into. That’s the concept that a link – and the requisite traffic – can pay for swiping a quote or a graf.

I think we’ll come to clearer rules about how much is too much, but my personal governance leaves me to try to always include the publication or source name, in addition to key words in the link, though I often also will use [Source] for a pull quote.

As long as the current generation is here to pass the search of justice onto its successor, the rest is just details we’ll sweat over for the next few years. [Source]

My initial link included the CJR name, though I also made it clear afterward. That’s a good link, though CJR doesn’t really need me for SEO. The ethical point is made, though. Blogs that just grab and don’t link or even the many whom I don’t think link adequately or swipe too much are unethical.

Keeley broke a ton of rules, though. He took way too much. He didn’t linkout, or in old media, stand-up parlance, he didn’t attribute. I’m not even sure a casual reference to the Inqy would have been a good enough link for all that he took.

There are a host of sites collecting free content, repackaging it and making a profit without any monetary compensation for the content creators, like the Huffington Post and others.

All this doesn’t mean attribution is dead, though.

We’ll have to come to some more established rules in this game, but it’s about ruling with an understanding.

Over at TechnicallyPhilly.com – a blog covering the city’s tech scene that me and two colleagues launched in February – as we flesh out our own sources and schedules, we have occasionally leaned on the Inqy and the Philadelphia Business Journal. But, we make it a point to link out with key words. In the rare occasion that we haven’t added our own value or packaged a number of sources together but rather relied on a single publication, we are sure to be bold about giving its name in the link. See here and here.

So, if you think you’re a good guy, act like it.

In the link economy, you do what you do best and link out to the rest. That’s attribution, and it’s effective, so long as the link’s a good one and the attribution is fair.